IGN's Top 50 Lost Loose Ends

Lost is a unique television series that manages to be engagingly captivating yet annoyingly frustrating. As big of fans of the show as we are here at IGN, we have more questions about the show's events than we have answers. So as Lost goes on a three-month-long Day Break, we thought we'd count down our Top 50 Lost Loose Ends.

Each day this week, we're revealing 10 loose ends that continue to nag us as we watch the show. From recent events to little things it appears the show has forgotten about to the really big mysteries, we're going to try to cover them all. Please note that we're defining a "loose end" as something that was brought up on the show but has yet to be resolved or explained on screen. If something has been addressed on another medium -- such as The Lost Experience online game, official podcasts or episode commentaries -- we consider it to still be a loose end since the average Lost viewer would not have seen the explanation.

Read on below for Day One of IGN's Top 50 Lost Loose Ends, or click over to:

Whether or not The Others and The Dharma Initiative are the same, one thing has become obvious - The Others, unlike the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, have connections to the outside world. They apparently can watch TV, they know tons of details about each survivor, including Sawyer's real name, Jack's profession, etc. -- things that you might get with some Internet searching skills or perhaps something more advanced than that. One also wonders whether their new clothes, food, books, medicine, etc. mean that they have intimate connections to the world outside the island, at least in order to gain life's necessities.

So the question becomes why don't The Others leave the confines of their surroundings themselves? If they know where to find rescue or how to get away from the island, what's stopping them from doing so? After all, they promise Michael and Walt when they hand over their boat to them that by going in a specific direction, they will find rescue. How come they don't utilize this outlet themselves in order to go back to the outside world, maybe for some spinal surgery?

#49: Who Is the Guy with the Eye Patch?

Eye Patch Man -- or "Patchy," as fans are affectionately calling him -- made his first appearance in season three's "The Cost of Living." In his brief appearance, "Patchy" suddenly appeared on one of the Pearl station video monitors. Noticing that he was being watched, he quickly turned off the surveillance device from his end. A startled Locke joked, "I guess he'll be expecting us." Who could this mysterious man with an eye patch be? The answer may lie in an episode that aired about a year ago called "The Other 48 Days." In that episode, the survivors of the tail section discovered a glass eye along with the other half of the Swan orientation film inside a box that was located at the Arrow station complex. If "Patchy" is the owner of the eye; why would he abandon it?

Those of you who were paying close attention to the mural in the Swan station may have noticed that there was a drawing of a man with his left eye crossed out. Unfortunately, the man who appeared on the video monitor was missing his right eye. The mystery continues but hopefully we will be seeing more of this character when the series returns in February.

#48: Getting to the Prison Island

This is one of the few loose ends that we expect to be cleared up when Lost comes back in February, but it's one that keeps nagging at us. How did Jack, Kate and Sawyer not know that they were being moved to another island when they were taken prisoner? Considering Jack, Kate and Sawyer all wake up disoriented in their respective cages/holding cells, it seems that they were drugged and completely unconscious during the transfer. How else could one explain how they didn't know they traveled a couple miles to another island? As to how they traveled, the online hubbub is that the Others have a submarine. When Colleen is shot aboard Desmond's sailboat in "Further Instructions," Ben tells Juliet, "The sub is back." Whether this means they really do have a submarine remains to be seen -- until then we consider this a Loose End.

Another possibility is that Ben was lying/tricking Sawyer into believing that there are two islands when they're actually part of the same island. This seems fairly unlikely since once would think Sawyer would be able to see that for himself when Ben showed him the second island. Another possibility is that they didn't actually move from the main island at all and the island Ben pointed out to Sawyer was just a neighboring island the plane didn't crash on.

We can only think of one other explanation: there are two islands and there's a secret underwater tunnel between them. Maybe it opens up into that underwater area Jack's being held in. It could even be set up like an airport tunnel between terminals, with a moving walkway, maybe a little shuttle system. And perhaps a Muzak version of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" plays while you make the trip, in 108 seconds.

#47: The Quote on Eko's Stick: John 3:05

Was this passage Mr. Eko's last message to Locke, or is it just a reference to the Bible verse? John 3:05 states: "Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. But on Eko's 'Jesus Stick' it showed, "Lift up your eyes and look north, John 3:05." This loose end seems like it will get answered sooner rather than later as Locke sees this as a calling -- even if it really is a coincidence. But here at IGN we are betting on the fact that it is a combination of both the verse and the etching on the stick -- as Locke will have to head north, while giving himself totally up to the island to get the answers that he needs.

#46: The Four-Toed Statue Foot

There was arguably no bigger "What the hell?" moment in the season two finale, "Live Together Die Alone," than the glimpse of an enormous sandaled foot with just four toes. Seen by Sayid, Jin and Sun while onboard Desmond's sailboat, Sayid comments that he's not sure which is more disturbing -- that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it only has four toes. Series executive producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse stated in the official Lost podcast on May 26, 2006 that the statue is a lead-in to season three, where we'll find that the statue predates the Dharma Initiative being on the island. Well, we have approximately 18 episodes left in the season for them to come up with some kind of flashback to pre-Dharma life on the island.